Sprint
In short
A sprint is a fixed-length period of one month or less, often two weeks, in which a Scrum team works toward one goal and produces a usable product increment.
What is a sprint in Scrum?
A sprint is the basic unit of work in Scrum: a fixed period, one month or less, during which the team turns a set of planned items into a usable increment of the product. Sprints run back to back without gaps, and their length stays the same from one sprint to the next so the team can build a steady rhythm. Two weeks is the most common choice in software teams.
Each sprint starts with sprint planning, where the team agrees on a sprint goal and moves items from the product backlog into a sprint backlog. During the sprint, the Developers meet in a 15-minute daily scrum to coordinate. The sprint ends with a sprint review, where stakeholders see what was built, and a retrospective, where the team decides how to improve. Scope can be clarified with the Product Owner as the team learns more, but changes that would endanger the sprint goal are avoided.
A sprint works like a short, focused season in sports: the team commits to a clear goal, plays the games, and then reviews the results before the next season begins. Because each sprint is short, a wrong turn costs at most a few weeks of work instead of months.
A sprint is not the same as a release. A sprint produces a finished increment, but the team may release it to users several times during the sprint, at the end, or later. The word sprint also does not mean working faster or doing overtime; it describes a timebox (a fixed, protected period of time), not a pace. Outside Scrum, the same idea is often simply called an iteration.
Key takeaways
- A sprint has a fixed length of one month or less, most often two weeks.
- Every sprint has one sprint goal that explains why the work matters.
- Sprint events are planning, the daily scrum, the sprint review, and the retrospective.
- Only the Product Owner can cancel a sprint, and only if its goal becomes obsolete.
- A sprint is a timebox, not a promise to work harder or faster.
Example
# A typical two-week sprint (10 working days)
sprint: 14
goal: Customers can reset their password by email
day_1:
- Sprint planning (about 4 hours)
days_1_to_10:
- Daily scrum (15 minutes)
- Build, test, and review backlog items
day_10:
- Sprint review with stakeholders
- Sprint retrospective
# Sprint 15 starts on the next working dayReaders ask
How long is a sprint?
The Scrum Guide says a sprint lasts one month or less. Most software teams choose two weeks, and they keep the length consistent so they can plan and compare sprints reliably.
What happens if the team doesn't finish all the work in a sprint?
Unfinished items do not count as done and go back to the product backlog, where the Product Owner reprioritizes them. The sprint is not extended; instead, the team discusses in the retrospective why the plan was off.
What is the difference between a sprint and an iteration?
An iteration is the general Agile term for a short, repeated development cycle. A sprint is Scrum's name for an iteration, with specific rules such as a sprint goal and a fixed set of events.
See also
- ScrumTeams & Process, p. 21Scrum is an Agile framework in which a small team delivers a product in fixed-length cycles called sprints, using defined roles, events, and artifacts.
- AgileTeams & Process, p. 2Agile is an approach to software development that delivers working software in small, frequent increments and adjusts plans based on regular feedback.
- RetrospectiveTeams & Process, p. 20A retrospective is a team meeting held at the end of each sprint to reflect on how the team worked and agree on concrete ways to improve next time.
- Story PointsTeams & Process, p. 28Story points are a unit Agile teams use to estimate the relative size of work items, combining complexity, amount of work, and uncertainty rather than hours.
- User StoryTeams & Process, p. 30A user story is a short, plain-language description of a feature told from the user's point of view, explaining who wants it, what they want, and why.
- Definition of DoneTeams & Process, p. 7The Definition of Done is a shared checklist of quality standards that every piece of work must meet before a team can consider it complete.
- Sprint PlanningTeams & Process, p. 27Sprint planning is the Scrum event that starts each sprint, where the team agrees on a sprint goal, selects backlog items it can finish and plans the work.
- TimeboxingTeams & Process, p. 29Timeboxing is setting a fixed maximum time for an activity in advance and stopping when it runs out, keeping work focused and forcing decisions about scope.
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